Brand Sentiment Defense

How to track AI mentions of your brand, run citation scans, understand the Hazard Detection System, and use AI-Powered Rebuttal Blueprints to neutralize negative citations.

Brand Sentiment Defense requires an active project. Select your domain from the header dropdown before visiting this page — citations and hazards are scoped to your selected project.

Overview

The Brand Defense Engine is your command center for monitoring what AI models say about your brand. It tracks AI citations across your keyword set, identifies hazardous mentions (broken links, hallucinations, negative sentiment), and gives you the tools to respond — with AI-generated rebuttal strategies tailored to each specific hazard.

Unlike traditional brand monitoring, which only tracks mentions, this system specifically tracks AI-sourced citations — the URLs that Perplexity Sonar references when answering queries about your brand, industry, or competitors.

Run AI Scan

The Run AI Scan button (lightning bolt icon) triggers a live citation scan across all your tracked keywords. This is the main action that populates your citation feed with fresh data.

Click Run AI Scan

The button is in the top-right of the Brand Defense Engine page. Hover it first to see a tooltip showing how many keywords will be scanned and the credit cost.

Watch the progress counter

A live counter appears on the button: "Scanning 2 of 5..." — showing you exactly which keyword is being queried in real time. Each keyword is sent to Perplexity Sonar sequentially.

Wait for completion

When all keywords have been scanned, a green success message appears confirming how many citations were found. The citation feed updates immediately with new results.

Review the updated feed

Use the filter tabs ("All", "Action Needed", "Positive", "Negative", "Broken") to sort the results by urgency.

Credit cost

Each keyword scanned costs 1 credit. If you have 5 keywords, the scan costs 5 credits. If you have added your Perplexity API key in Settings → API Keys, all scans are free — your own key is used instead of RankAsAnswer's quota.

Scan is disabled when credits are insufficient

If you do not have enough credits to scan all your keywords, the Run AI Scan button is disabled and shows a tooltip explaining the shortfall. Add your Perplexity API key to bypass credit limits entirely.

Refresh button

The Refresh button (refresh icon, next to Run AI Scan) reloads your existing citation data from the database. It does not run new Perplexity queries and costs 0 credits.

Use Refresh when:

You want to see citation data that may have been updated by another session
You have just marked citations as fixed and want to update the feed
The "Last sync" timestamp shows stale data you want to reload

The Last sync: X minutes ago timestamp below the buttons shows when the most recent Run AI Scan completed. It helps you decide whether to refresh the view or run a full new scan.

Dashboard stats

Five stat cards at the top of the page give you an at-a-glance summary of your brand's citation health:

Stat	What it measures
Total Citations	All AI mentions of your brand across every keyword scan
Positive	Citations where the AI framed your brand favorably
Negative	Citations where the AI used negative, critical, or misleading framing
Critical Issues	Citations flagged as requiring immediate action (broken links + hallucinations)
Broken Links	AI engines citing your URLs that are returning 404 or timing out

Hazard Detection System

The Hazard Detection System automatically scans your citation feed for dangerous patterns and surfaces them in a dedicated Hazards table. Two types of hazards are detected:

Broken Links

A broken link hazard means an AI engine is actively citing a URL on your site that is no longer accessible. The page may have been deleted, moved, or renamed, but the AI has not updated its knowledge — it continues to send users to a dead URL.

Broken link hazards are classified by severity:

Critical — 404 errors on pages that are frequently cited (high impression count)
High — 404 errors on pages with moderate citation frequency
Medium — Timeout errors or intermittent failures

Hallucinated Citations

A hallucinated citation hazard means an AI engine is citing a URL that does not exist at all — not just a broken page, but a URL that was never created. The AI invented the source.

Hallucinated citations are flagged as Critical because they are the hardest to fix and can cause permanent reputational damage. The AI is confidently pointing users to a fabricated source associated with your brand.

Hallucinations require a different fix strategy

Unlike broken links (which are fixed by restoring or redirecting the URL), hallucinated citations require a content and authority strategy — publishing accurate content that the AI can retrieve and replace the hallucinated source with.

AI-Powered Rebuttal Blueprints

For every hazard and negative citation in your feed, RankAsAnswer automatically generates an AI-Generated Rebuttal Strategy — a tailored action plan for neutralizing that specific hazard.

This replaces the old static checklist approach. Instead of generic advice, you get a blueprint built from the actual citation text, the specific hazard type, and the context of your brand.

Click a hazard or negative citation in the feed

Click any citation flagged as "Action Needed", "Negative", or "Broken" to open the Citation Fix Modal.

Review the AI-Generated Rebuttal Strategy

The modal automatically shows an AI-generated rebuttal blueprint for that specific citation. The blueprint includes a problem summary and a suggested rebuttal content strategy based on the hazard type.

Copy and implement the rebuttal content

Copy the rebuttal content suggestion and publish it on your site at the correct URL. The goal is to give the AI engine authoritative, accurate content it can retrieve to replace the hazard.

Build external citations for the rebuttal

After publishing, get the rebuttal content cited by credible external sources (press releases, trade publications, partner sites). This shifts AI model training data toward your corrected narrative.

Click "Mark as Fixed"

Once you have implemented the fix, click the Mark as Fixed button in the modal. This archives the citation from the active action queue and helps track your remediation progress.

Regenerate if the first blueprint is not specific enough

Click the "Generate AI Rebuttal" button at the bottom of the rebuttal panel to regenerate the strategy. Each generation is fresh — useful if you want a different angle or tone for the rebuttal content.

The Citation Fix Modal opens when you click any citation that requires action. It has two views depending on the hazard type:

Negative sentiment view

Shows the AI citation text that is framing your brand negatively. Automatically generates an AI-Powered Rebuttal Strategy using Gemini, including a suggested rebuttal article structure and recommended channels to distribute it. A "Mark as Fixed" button archives the citation when resolved.

Broken link view

Shows the broken URL and the citation context where it appeared. Provides a fix checklist: restore the page, set up a 301 redirect, or publish replacement content at the same URL path. A "Mark as Fixed" button archives the citation once the URL is restored.

Brand Health Trend chart

The Brand Health Trend chart shows your positive vs. negative AI mentions over time. Use the date range selector (7d, 30d, 90d) to control the time window.

The chart has two data series:

Positive citations — Favorable or neutral AI mentions over time
Negative citations — Critical or hazardous mentions over time

As you implement fixes and publish rebuttal content, the negative line should trend downward and the positive line should trend upward. This chart is your primary measure of whether your brand defense strategy is working.

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